Syracuse University’s Student Association proposed a bill that would restrict how SA’s president, vice president and comptroller can handle rollover budget policy and prohibit the abuse of funds.

Parliamentarian Drew Jacobsen and Finance Board member Stacy Omosa presented the bill on Monday night. The legislation would allow the entire finance board to have the final decision when allocating the organization’s rollover budget.

The rollover account contains leftover funds from the previous academic year provided by registered student organizations. When organizations cancel their events or have unspent money remaining at the end of the semester, they must return the money to SA.

Only SA’s president, vice president and comptroller can currently approve the allocation of the rollover budget. If the proposed bill passes, the entire elected finance board would have to approve it as well. The bill states that the finance board will vote by a simple majority to decide how to distribute the remaining rollover funds.

Members of SA voiced their concerns about the use of rollover funds, and several members criticized SA President Ghufran Salih and Vice President Kyle Rosenblum for a lack of transparency in the planning of the upcoming “Cuse Can! It Starts With Us” event.

Jacobsen said he originally wrote the bill two months ago, but he didn’t propose it because of the lack of interest regarding the rollover account. He brought it up this week because members were asking about it during the ongoing SA elections, he said in an interview after the meeting. He said he would get the best feedback if people were interested in the topic.

Jacobsen added that the bill was not proposed because of criticisms surrounding “Cuse Can!”

“It’s not a perfect bill, and it needs collaboration, which is why I wanted to bring it in (at) a time where people were talking about it,” he said.

Multiple assembly members expressed concerns regarding the bill’s level of restrictiveness. One representative asked if there could be middle ground where the comptroller, vice president and president have some more freedom over the allocations than what was presented in the bill. Omosa said rules on which members can edit bills can be very strict.

Jacobsen wrote the current bill, which gives the comptroller, president and vice president the power to allocate the rollover budget. He said he stands by the original reasoning for the bill, but the new bill will provide necessary changes.

“I do realize that it is important to have the people who are elected to be the first one to manage the money,” he said. “The comptroller, president and vice president will have the ability to manage it, but the finance board will have to approve it first.”

Other business

• The assembly voted on the funding for almost 130 student organizations which involved $1.8 million of the SA budget. SA approved all of the finance board’s funding decisions.
• David Fox, SA’s director of technology, presented the Campus Safety Challenge, which will take place April 11 in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons. The event was created to cultivate safety and security at SU, according to a flyer handed out during SA. The event will cost SA $566.

Published on April 2, 2019 at 12:43 am

Contact Abby: akweiss@syr.edu | @abbyweiss_21